It was an hour drive to the evaluation site where they would test my powers. I was expecting something like a doctor’s office but instead when we arrived it turned out to be a bomb range. It makes sense, since powers could be unpredictable and no one wanted to have to keep rebuilding or repairing something like a doctor’s office. Looking out my shattered window only reminded me of how dangerous I could be without meaning to be. Just trying to open the car door had proven to be too much and I’d warped the door frame, breaking the window in the process.

“I love what they’ve done with the place,” my dad said as he pointed to a temporary building set off to one side, a large sign indicating that it was where we were to go to check in. “Looks like we’ve got the whole place to ourselves, too.”

“Lucky us,” I muttered, trying to contain my anxiety.

We parked and my dad hopped out.

“I’ll get your door for you,” he said.

I didn’t argue about it with him. He hadn’t said anything about the damage I’d done to his car and for that I was grateful.

It took a few tries for him to wrench the door back open and once I was out of the car, the door wouldn’t shut again properly.

“We’ll deal with that later,” he shrugged and led the way over to the building.

Inside were a pair of supers. I could tell because the man had green skin and the woman was purple. They greeted us and had my dad fill out some release forms while I sat in a chair, trying hard not to break anything. That proved to be a vain effort on my part since after only a few minutes I shifted my weight and snapped the back of the chair off.

“Oops,” the purple woman said in a kindly manner. “Don’t worry about the chair. We have some reinforced ones if you’d like.”

“Yes, please,” I replied, embarrassed.

“Should’ve had it out to begin with since we knew you were strong,” the man said as he opened a closet and pulled out a solid metal chair that looked like it weighed a few hundred pounds. “Try that one,” he said, setting it down next to me.

I did, still moving carefully.

“You can relax with that one,” the green man told me, “It’s built for people like us.”

I leaned back in it, as I had done with the other chair, and the metal screamed in protest before it split in two. The green man stared in disbelief at the broken chair and the purple woman flashed red for a moment in surprise. The broken chunk of metal was several inches thick but I’d hardly felt any resistance from it.

“I am so sorry,” I gasped

“No, no, that’s…fine,” the green man said after a moment’s pause, still looking at the broken chair. “I guess we can skip the low end tests for your strength and go right to figuring out what your upper limit is. Come with me.”

He opened the door and walked out of the building. I followed, as well as the purple woman, but my dad stayed behind since, apparently, some of the tests were too dangerous for him to be near by.

“I’m Kira,” the woman said while we walked. “I have healing powers so if anything goes wrong here today, I’ll be able to patch things up.”

“Right, and I’m Harding,” the green man said. “Strength and durability are my main powers, though I have some limited flight capabilities.”

“He can only hover a few feet above the ground and goes about as fast as we’re walking,” Kira snickered.

“I can hear you,” Harding called back, though this seemed more like good natured teasing than anything else.

As if to prove that he could do it, Harding rose into the air as he continued to lead the way up and over a rise.

“Not many supers can fly,” Harding said, “and most of those who can are like me. Only a few rare cases can do better.”

“And those ones can really fly,” Kira noted.

At the top of the rise, I found that we’d come to the lip of a large pit, or maybe it was a crater. There were smaller divots in the bottom and I began to wonder what sort of supers had been here before me. There were a few spots marked off with cones.

“Avoid those areas,” Harding said, pointing to the cones, “but everywhere else is fine. Down in the center is a large boulder, buried in the ground. Go dig it out.”

He gestured to the bottom of the pit where I could just make out the tip of the boulder. How digging was supposed to measure my overall strength I didn’t know.

“Is there a shovel I can use?” I asked.

“Nope. Gotta use your hands, feet, I’ve even seen some supers use their faces,” Harding replied.

With that instruction, I made my way down into the pit. I passed by one of the marked hazard areas and smelled something foul in the air. Maybe some kind of acid. It made my head swim for a moment until I was passed it and couldn’t smell it any more. Once I reached the bottom I could see more clearly the exposed patch of stone. It was about three feet across. With no tools, I crouched down and clawed at the dirt around the edge of the stone. My hand sank into the ground without meeting any resistance. I’d gone too deep, however, and my hand hit the rock. It didn’t stop me, however. Instead it began shattering, sending chunks of stone flying in every direction. I screamed and leapt back, unintentionally launching myself into the air. The force of my leap also blasted the ground where I’d been standing, sending even more debris into the air.

Harding caught me as I flew backward and we landed in a heap. I instinctively grabbed hold of him and felt his bones begin to snap. He cried out and I let go right away, rolling away from him and hoping I hadn’t done too much damage. Kira was there in an instant, healing Harding who was pale and contorted.

Slowly, Harding’s body went back into the right shape and his breathing returned to normal.

“That,” Harding said, still shaken as he sat up, “was impressive.”

“I am so sorry!” I exclaimed, keeping my distance and folding my arms around myself so I wouldn’t accidentally hurt anyone else.

“That’s why I’m here,” Kira said. “You should have seen what the last super did to Harding. Believe me, he’s had worse.”

“Really?”

“I’m incredibly hard to kill,” Harding said with a wave, “That’s why I got this job. Most of the time nothing serious happens, but when it does, Kira and I can handle it.”

“I almost killed you,” I gasped in disbelief at how calm both he and Kira were being about all of this.

“Not hardly,” he chuckled. “You busted me up pretty good, but it takes more than broken bones to kill me.”

“You sure you’re alright?” I asked, still in a bit of shock.

“I’m fine,” he assured me. “Kira’s patched me up from worse before. Now then, how about digging up that rock?”

I climbed back down on uncertain legs but when I reached the spot, I discovered that the boulder was nothing but rubble now, shattered from when I’d jumped earlier. I dug through it, looking to see if there was a solid core remaining but the largest chunks I could find were barely as big as myself.

“I guess that rock’s had it,” Harding called down when he saw what had happened. “That’s alright, I have a few concrete blocks I can have you lift.”

He waved for me to follow him and led me around to a level part of the bomb range where a few massive concrete slabs, reinforced with steel plates, were positioned beside a solid metal platform. Huge anchor bolts were set into each block.

“Just climb on up there and see if you can lift any of those blocks by the anchors,” Harding instructed. “Like this.”

He climbed up a set of stairs, positioned himself beside the smallest of the blocks, kicked off his shoes, and lifted it by the anchor bolt.

I followed him up and grabbed the same block.

“Take your shoes off,” he instructed.

I did, but asked him why as I did so.

“Because your shoes weren’t built to handle the amount of pressure you’re about to put on your feet. You lift that block with your shoes on and you’ll crush the soles.”

I lifted the block easily.

“How’s that feel?” he asked.

“It feels like a balloon,” I told him. “It barely feels like there’s anything there. In fact,” I squeezed my hand and the anchor bolt shattered in my grip.

The concrete block dropped back onto the ground with a deafening thud that shook the ground. Harding and Kira stared.

“Never seen anyone do that before,” Kira remarked.

“Try lifting the big one there,” Harding pointed to the largest block.

I grabbed the anchor bolts, one in each hand, and lifted the block. The metal beneath my feet warped slightly but I hardly felt any strain. I took one hand away to hold it with just one hand, then the other. The anchor bolts were straining at the forces being applied to them but they held.

“Feels like a cardboard box,” I said before setting it down again. I was pretty confident that if I’d held it for much longer that the anchor bolts would have snapped.

“No one’s ever lifted that one before,” Harding gaped. “Looks like we have a new strongest super.”

“That’ll make Chiro happy,” Kira said, joining us up on the platform.

“Who’s Chiro?” I asked.

“Chiro’s the previous record holder for strongest super but he hates attention,” Kira explained. “Lives like a hermit on some mountain. People make pilgrimages to him even though he’s asked to be left alone.”

“Maybe now he’ll get his wish,” Harding said, then asked, “How’re your hands?”

“My hands?” I asked, looking at them and then holding them up for him to see. “They’re fine. Why?”

“Not everyone with super strength is also super durable,” he explained. “I’ve seen people break their own bones trying to life these.” He took my hands in his own and began to look them over more closely. “Not even a crease,” he muttered.

“I don’t sense any injuries in her,” Kira added.

“Good,” Harding clapped. “You’re at least bullet proof. Maybe even blast proof.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“I’m bullet proof, up to fifty cal’s,” he stated, “and you’re definitely more durable than me since you don’t crush your own bones with your strength.”

“I don’t have to be shot at to test that, do I?”

“Goodness, no!” Harding laughed. “Only adults can undergo those tests, and even then it’s very carefully monitored with someone like Kira standing by.”

That was a relief. For a moment I had a terrible vision of Harding shooting an array of increasingly powerful guns at me until one of them got through.

“Since I’m the strongest, am I also the toughest?” I asked.

“That one’s a little harder to tell,” Harding admitted. “Without direct testing we can’t know for certain, and we’re generally wary about doing those sorts of tests since they can go very badly if we aren’t careful, even with a healer on hand.

That made sense and I left it at that. I wasn’t really wanting to test my durability anyway since it sounded like it would be rather painful.

“Alright, let’s see if there’s any other powers hiding out inside of you,” Harding said brightly.